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gelenka-daria · 2 months ago

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there’s been this persistent little phenomenon, this tendency people have to take melkor, the most powerful of the ainur, the architect of darkness, and gently pat him on the head like he’s some misunderstood genius who just needed a little patience and a warm beverage. it’s kind of fascinating, honestly. they look at the guy who spent multiple ages wrecking creation with obsessive precision and go, “oh, poor thing. he felt fear. he was hurt.” like fear is something only the unjustly persecuted experience and not, you know, a natural consequence of trying to wrestle the universe into submission and slowly realizing it won’t budge.

there’s this dramatic streak in how people frame him, a sense that the real tragedy was not the wars, not the ruin, not the grief etched into every hill of beleriand, but the fact that melkor was made to feel small. that his “individuality” wasn’t celebrated. but melkor’s individuality wasn’t a quirky refusal to follow rules. it was an all-consuming need to dominate, to possess, to unmake. he didn’t want a seat at the table—he wanted to flip the table, melt it down, forge it into a throne and sit on it alone.

and the idea that the other valar somehow “crushed” him? that they collectively failed him? no. if anyone was failed, it was the song he was meant to be a part of, it was the valar themselves, it was the children of Ilúvatar.

it was manwë.

because manwë never stopped trying. he never stopped believing in melkor, even when every sign told him not to. even when the darkness had already begun to bloom, when melkor’s pride had metastasized into cruelty, manwë still held out his hand. he hoped. he forgave. he gave melkor freedom again when everyone else expected and advised him not to. and melkor took that chance and immediately used it to devastate the light of the world and still manwë grieved. he never hardened, never turned bitter. he remained open, even when he had every reason to close himself off. and that’s the real heartbreak of their story—not the punishment, not the fear, not some illusion of an undeserved, cold crown. it’s that manwë never stopped seeing the brother he once loved, and melkor never looked back.

now, the fear part. let’s actually talk about that, because it’s important. melkor is the only valar who “knew fear,” yes, but not because he was targeted or excluded. it’s because fear, real fear, requires something to lose. it comes from the knowledge that you’re vulnerable, that you can’t control everything, that things exist outside of your will and might never bend to it. melkor wanted everything. he wanted to shape the world after his own imagination. but deep down he knew he couldn’t. he wasn’t eru. he couldn’t create life. he couldn’t bring forth new flame, only twist existing fire. and that gnawed at him.

he feared eru, the one thing he could never reach or rival. he feared tulkas, who bested him, he feared the music of the ainur itself, which moved with beauty he couldn’t comprehend or redirect. he feared the dissipation of his own essence as he poured it into arda, trying to control every piece of it and slowly draining himself in the process, his wasting away a making of his own hands. and maybe, maybe most of all, he feared the idea that he might be wrong. that harmony and love might actually be more powerful than control. that the others, in their peaceful submission to the music, had something he never would.

the rest of the valar didn’t know fear because they didn’t need to. they were anchored. not docile, but aligned. they trusted the music. they didn’t feel the same hunger because they were whole in ways melkor refused to be. and in cutting himself off from that wholeness, melkor made himself not just alone, but hollow. and fear fills hollow things and festers in isolation.

this doesn’t mean melkor wasn’t a tragedy. of course he was. but not the kind people try to make him into. his tragedy wasn’t that he was cast out. it was that he cast himself out, again and again. it was that he took the incredible, singular potential he was given and used it to consume rather than create. the world was full of beauty waiting for him to shape it with his gifts, and he chose to break it instead, because if he couldn’t own it, he didn’t want it to exist.

and yet—and this is where tolkien breaks from the usual storybook pattern—there’s still a thread of hope. tolkien doesn’t write villains as lost forever. he said himself that he didn’t believe any being created by eru could be irredeemable. evil, in his world, is not a rival force, it’s a distortion. and what is distorted can, at least in theory, be healed.

when arda is remade, when the second music plays, we’re told that all will know their parts and sing them aright. and there’s no fine print saying “except melkor.” no cosmic asterisk. the athrabeth tells us that arda won’t just be destroyed and replaced, it’ll be healed. made whole. and that implies that even the deepest wounds, melkor among them, have a future that isn’t just silence or fire.

maybe, in that distant dawn, when the music rises again, melkor will choose differently. not because he’s been forced, not because anyone finally broke him into submission, but because he sees. because he understands. because he no longer fears the music, but wants to be part of it. maybe then, the voice that once screamed against the harmony will join it instead, and the song will be greater for it. maybe, after everything, he’ll find his way home, not as a king, not as a god, but as a brother.

and yeah. maybe that’s when he’ll get his hugs. but they won’t be for what he suffered. they’ll be for what he became.

#melkor is not your little meow meow #manwë didn’t bully your blorbo and he deserves better than to be slandered like this #yes I love him OBVIOUSLY but I do not excuse him #he burned the world and y’all are like “aww”#melkor #manwë #tolkien #rant

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apoloadonisandnarcissus · 14 days ago

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“I see the end”: Mairon, Dagor Dagorath and Arda Healed

Let’s take another deep dive into Tolkien legendarium. Would Sauron side with Morgoth during the Dagor Dagorath? The answer might be surprising.

“I see the end, Celebrimbor. So clearly. I have seen it from the moment I awoke.” This is among the most interesting and important quotes in “Rings of Power” because it holds so much significance in Tolkien legendarium, and takes us back to the origins of Mairon the Admirable, why he chose Aulë, and then Melkor, and even his entire fate in this tale.

As we know from “The Silmarillion”, during the Ainulindalë, Melkor tainted the universe with evil, rebellion and discord. This means all of these characters live in what Tolkien called “Arda Marred”. This is connected to one of the core themes in Tolkien legendarium; “The Fall”, which means every character (except Eru Ilúvatar) can be corrupted.

The Ainur (Valar and Maiar) sang the universe into existence, together with Eru Ilúvatar, but Melkor went freestyle on the song. “Satan fell. In my myth Morgoth fell before Creation of the physical world” (Tolkien Letter 183).

“Morgoth lost (or exchanged, or transmuted) the greater part of his original 'angelic' powers, of mind and spirit, while gaining a terrible grip upon the physical world […] Morgoth's vast power was disseminated. The whole of 'Middle-earth' was Morgoth's Ring. […] No such eradication of Morgoth was possible, since this required the complete disintegration of the 'matter' of Arda.” (“Morgoth’s Ring”)

This is exactly what it sounds like; the only way to erase Morgoth’s corruption of Arda is for the world to be made anew, which will only happen after the Dagor Dagorath, when there will a second Song. But more on that later.

In “Morgoth’s Ring”, we are also told the Maiar that joined Melkor right there are called “Úmaiar”, and the Balrogs were among them.

This was not Mairon’s case.

From “The Silmarillion”; “In his beginning he was of the Maiar of Aule, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people.” In the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy we are also told of the goodness in which Mairon began: “For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.”

(source)

When exactly Mairon joined Melkor, we don’t know. It wasn’t during the Ainulindalë (he joined Aulë). We know why, though: “Because of his admiration of Strength he had become a follower of Morgoth and fell with him down into the depths of evil, becoming his chief agent in Middle Earth” (Notes on Letter 183).

“He [Sauron] still had relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and co-ordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. (It was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him.)” (“Morgoth’s Ring”)

Mairon sided with Melkor to get more power and make his plans a reality. But what are these “plans”? And why would a Maia of order and obsessed with perfection ever side with the Vala of chaos and destruction? Morgoth and Sauron are opposites; one wants to destroy, the other wants to perfect. After all, that’s why Sauron’s goals aligned with the Elves of Eregion to make the “rings of power” a reality.

In the same book we are told: “While Morgoth still stood, Sauron did not seek his own supremacy, but worked and schemed for another, desiring the triumph of Melkor, whom in the beginning he had adored.”

In “War of the Jewels”, it’s revealed the Valarin name of some of the Valar and of Ossë. We don’t know what’s “Mairon” Valarin name, but “Mairon” is Quenya for “the admirable”. How does he have a Elvish name? And if it follows the logic of the examples we have, it’s probably the Quenya translation of his Valarin name. Which indicates it was a name the Elves gave him. And this makes sense with what Tolkien wrote in “Parma Eldalamberon”: “Sauron’s original name was Mairon, but this was altered after he was suborned by Melkor. But he continued to call himself Mairon the Admirable, or Tar-mairon ‘King Excellent’ until after the downfall of Númenor”. Altered by whom? By the Elves, of course. They are the ones who started to call him “Sauron” (“The Abhorred”).

In “The Silmarillion”, we are told it was Sauron who discovered the dwellings of the first Elves, and he was apparently already working for Melkor then. And in his Letter 131, Tolkien writes: “And there is Sauron. In the Silmarillion and Tales of the First Age Sauron was a being of Valinor perverted to the service of the Enemy and becoming his chief captain and servant.”

Throughout the First Age, Sauron was, indeed, a loyal servant to Morgoth, and worshipped (“adored”) him.

However, both in “The Silmarillion” and “Lay of Leithian”, the “Lúthien and Huan” episode might suggest a different picture in later years. Which is probably why “Rings of Power” is following the route of Sauron being tortured by Morgoth.

“Lúthien came to him [Sauron], and said that he should be stripped of his raiment of flesh, and his ghost be sent quaking back to Morgoth; and she said: 'There everlastingly thy naked self shall endure the torment of his scorn, pierced by his eyes, unless thou yield to me the mastery of thy tower.' Then Sauron yielded himself, and Lúthien took the mastery of the isle and all that was there; and Huan released him.”

It’s the threat of Morgoth’s wrath that causes Sauron to surrender, and then he runs away. And we only hear of him again at the end of the war, when he repents before Eönwë. Did he stay hidden or did he return to Morgoth and face his wrath? We don’t know. Not even the Valar were able to find him.

We are told Sauron “in truth repented”, and it’s added “in fear”. But in fear of whom or what? Because while he can’t bring himself to return to Aman and face trial by the Valar (like Eönwë tells him to), Tolkien writes in his Letter 152: “could not face the humiliation of recantation, and suing for pardon; and so his temporary turn to good and 'benevolence' ended in a greater relapse.” We have a combination of fear and pride preventing Sauron from facing the Valar' judgement.

During the Second age, Tolkien tells us Sauron wants to rebuild/heal Middle-earth, comparing him with “all ‘reformers' who want to hurry up with 'reconstruction' and 'reorganization'” (Letter 152). “He [Sauron] lingers in Middle-earth. Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganising and rehabilitation of the ruin of Middle-earth” 'neglected by the gods'” (Letter 131). And this is the context for his “rings of power” project.

This idea is explored in “Morgoth’s Ring”: “But like all minds of this cast, Sauron's love (originally) or (later) mere understanding of other individual intelligences was correspondingly weaker; and though the only real good in, or rational motive for, all this ordering and planning and organization was the good of all inhabitants of Arda”. And so, he believed it was his “right to be their supreme lord”.

We know Sauron eventually becomes the “final incarnation of evil”, especially during the Third age, when he claims to be “Morgoth come again”, and even makes the Númenóreans workship Melkor to orchestrate their Downfall during the Second age. But was he still devoted to Melkor like he was in the First age?

Tolkien gives us the answer in “Morgoth’s Ring”, but, in short, no, quite the opposite:

“Sauron, however, inherited the corruption of Arda, and only spent his (much more limited) power on the Rings; for it was the creatures of earth, in their minds and wills, that he desired to dominate. In this way Sauron was also wiser than Melkor-Morgoth. Sauron was not a beginner of discord; and he probably knew more of the Music [of the Ainur] than did Melkor, whose mind had always been filled with his own plans and devices, and gave little attention to other things.”

Morgoth was envious of Eru Ilúvatar creation, and wanted that “power” for himself. Unable to have it, he devoted himself to corrupt and destroy it.

“Thus, as Morgoth, when Melkor was confronted by the existence of other inhabitants of Arda, with other wills and intelligences, he was enraged by the mere fact of their existence, and his only notion of dealing with them was by physical force, or the fear of it. His sole ultimate object was their destruction.” And Tolkien adds: “Morgoth would no doubt, if he had been victorious, have ultimately destroyed even his own creatures, such as the Orcs, when they had served his sole purpose in using them: the destruction of Elves and Men”. “Melkor’s final impotence and despair lay in this: that whereas the Valar (and in their degree Elves and Men) could still love Arda Marred, that is Arda with a Melkor-ingredient, and could still heal this or that hurt, or produce from its very marring, from its state as it was, things beautiful and lovely, Melkor could do nothing with Arda, which was not from his own mind and was interwoven with the work and thoughts of others: even left alone he could only have gone raging on till all was levelled again into a formless chaos. And yet even so he would have been defeated, because it would still have existed, independent of his own mind, and a world in potential.” “Sauron had never reached this stage of nihilistic madness. He did not object to the existence of the world, so long as he could do what he liked with it.”

This sounds contradictory, but Sauron, unlike Morgoth, has a plan. He wants to dominate the minds and wills of others with a very specific purpose; he’s not doing this randomly.

And it all goes back to healing Middle-earth. He believes the Valar failed (Morgoth included), and Eru deserted and doesn’t care about His creation anymore. So he steps in to fix everything. And Tolkien tells us: "beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth" (Tolkien Letter 183). However, he relapsed into evil because his "pride and the lust to exert [his] will [domination] eat [him] up." (Tolkien Letter 153)

But Sauron is not above using Morgoth (chaos and destruction) to achieve his goal. But why? Is this because “the bounds Morgoth laid on him were too strong” or “Sauron had not served Morgoth, even in his last stages, without becoming infected by his lust for destruction, and his hatred of God”?

Tolkien tells us something else, too: “Sauron could not, of course, be a ‘sincere' atheist. Though one of the minor spirits created before the world, he knew Eru, according to his measure. He probably deluded himself with the notion that the Valar (including Melkor) having failed, Eru had simply abandoned Ea, or at any rate Arda, and would not concern himself with it any more.”

At its core, Sauron is a consequence of Morgoth. Like Tolkien calls him in his Letter 156 “absolute Satanic rebellion and evil Morgoth and his satellite Sauron”. But, Tolkien also tells Sauron can’t never be a “sincere atheist” because he knows Eru Ilúvatar, and his feud is against the Valar, not Eru himself. To the point, he actually believed the Valar went rogue on Eru:

“It would appear that he [Sauron] interpreted the 'change of the world' at the Downfall of Numenor, when Aman was removed from the physical world, in this sense: Valar (and Elves) were removed from effective control, and Men under God's curse and wrath. If he thought about the Istarl, especially Saruman and Gandalf, he imagined them as emissaries from the Valar, seeking to establish their lost power again and 'colonize' Middle-earth, as a mere effort of defeated imperialists (without knowledge or sanction of Eru). His cynicism, which (sincerely) regarded the motives of Manwe as precisely the same as the his own, seemed fully justified in Saruman. Gandalf he did not understand."

Why is this relevant? Because of the Catholic inspiration behind the legendarium: “In The Lord of the Rings the conflict is not basically about 'freedom', though that is naturally involved. It is about God and His sole right to divine honour.” (Letter 183). And this is Sauron’s greatest crime in the legendarium. Believing Eru had deserted Arda, he wanted to take that position for himself: “Sauron desired to be a God-King, and was held to be this by his servants; if he had been victorious he would have demanded divine honour from all rational creatures and absolute temporal power over the whole world.” (Letter 183). Which is why he’s in open rebellion against the One and, indirectly, serving Morgoth (“rebellion”), even thought he ended up hating all the Valar (yes, even Morgoth).

Of course, Sauron was defeated. And this is a key difference between Morgoth and Sauron’s plots. Morgoth succeeded in corrupting Arda (to the point his influence can only be eradicated if the world is made anew), while Sauron failed in healing Middle-earth, and his influence ended with the destruction of the One ring.

Now, everything happens according to Eru Ilúvatar’s plan, and he knows everything. What was His plan for Mairon to side with Melkor and cause all this trouble?

Eru Ilúvatar even changed the world because of the Númenor mess, after all. It’s important to recall no one can alter Eru’s plan (not Morgoth, not Sauron). In “The Nature of Middle-earth” we are told about the Downfall of Númenor:

“The Catastrophe represents a definite intervention of Eru and therefore in a sense a change of the primal plan. It is a foretaste of the End of Arda. The situation is much later than “conversation of Finrod and Andreth” and could not then be foreseen by anyone, not even Manwë. In a sense Eru moved forward the End of Arda as far as it concerned the Elves. They had fulfilled their function – and we approach the “Dominion of Men”.”

Yes, this is connected to the Dagor Dagorath. And yes, I’m with the Tolkien scholars on this one. I also don’t understand why Christopher Tolkien believed his father abandoned this idea when it’s mentioned almost everywhere in the legendarium.

Like mentioned above, Sauron interpreted the Downfall of Númenor as the Valar and the Elves being “removed from effective control”. The Eldar loremasters who wrote “The Silmarillion”, on the other hand, seem to believe he was only thinking about the Númenóreans.

One of the most iconic descriptions of this event is Sauron laughing on his throne: “And Sauron, sitting in his black seat in the midst of the Temple, had laughed when he heard the trumpets of Ar-Pharazôn sounding for battle; and again he had laughed when he heard the thunder of the storm; and a third time, even as he laughed at his own thought, thinking what he would do now in the world, being rid of the Edain for ever, he was taken in the midst of his mirth, and his seat and his temple fell into the abyss.”

Mairon here appears to think the end of Arda has come? He probably thinks he has successfully pissed off the Valar, though.

The Dagor Dagorath is pretty much the Christian Apocalypse or the Norse Ragnarök. It’s the “end of days”, the end of the world. Which is very fitting with every maior inspiration of Tolkien legendarium. It’s a prophecy called the “Second Doom of Mandos”, when Morgoth will return from the Void to be defeated.

From the later version of the “Quenta Silmarillion” in “War of the Jewels”:

“Thus spake Mandos in prophecy, when the Gods sat in judgement in Valinor, and the rumour of his words was whispered among all the Elves of the West. When the world is old and the Powers grow weary, then Morgoth, seeing that the guard sleepeth, shall come back through the Door of Night out of the Timeless Void; and destroy the Sun and Moon. But Eärendil shall descend upon him as a white and searing flame and drive him from the airs. Then shall the Last Battle be gathered on the fields of Valinor. In that day Tulkas shall strive with Morgoth, and on his right hand shall be Eönwë, and on his left Túrin Turambar, son of Húrin, returning from the Doom of Men at the ending of the world; and the black sword of Túrin shall deal unto Morgoth his death and final end; and so shall the children of Húrin and all Men be avenged. Thereafter shall Earth be broken and re-made, and the Silmarils shall be recovered out of Air and Earth and Sea; for Eärendil shall descend and surrender that flame which he hath had in keeping. Then Fëanor shall take the Three Jewels and he will break them and with their fire Yavanna will rekindle the Two Trees, and a great light shall come forth. And the Mountains of Valinor shall be levelled, so that the Light shall go out over all the world.”

Unfortunately and oddily, Sauron is not mentioned in this event. In the “Book of Lost Tales” it’s said: “Turambar indeed shall stand beside Fionwë in the Great Wrack, and Melko and his drakes shall curse the sword of Mormakil". The “drakes” are the dragons. This is the only known reference to Morgoth’s creatures standing by his side during the Battle of Battles.

Many wrongly assume Sauron was sent to the Void after the destruction of the One ring. Mostly because that’s what the Eldar loremasters believe in “The Silmarillion”. But that’s not Tolkien tells us in his Letter 131: “There was another weakness: if the One Ring was actually unmade, annihilated, then its power would be dissolved, Sauron's own being would be diminished to vanishing point, and he would be reduced to a shadow, a mere memory of malicious will.”

Which is what Gandalf tells Frodo in the “Fellowship of the Ring” book: “If [the One Ring] is destroyed, then [Sauron] will fall; and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of his strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed.”

Mairon’s spirit remains in Arda after the One ring is destroyed; which is connected to his Ainur nature, after all. He’s powerless and unable to take on physical form, though.

I would also like to bring this description from “Return of the King” when the One ring gets destroyed: “And as the Captain gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent [Sauron’s spirit]: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed, then a hush fell.”

We have a “great wind” taking Sauron’s spirit away which opens a lot of possibilities. Manwë is the Valar of winds and skies, so can it be he sent some of his Maiar to capture Sauron and bring him to Valinor? Eönwë, maybe? After the mess of the Second and Third ages, the Valar would probably want to capture Sauron if they got the chance, I would say. So, it’s entirely possible that Mairon was imprisoned within the Halls of Mandos. Until the end of days?

Story keeps repeating itself in Tolkien legendarium. Like Sam tells Frodo “Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still! It's going on. Don't the great tales never end?”

Sauron was also oddily missing from Morgoth’s side at the Battle of the Powers at the end of the First age, when the Valar chain Morgoth and imprison him in the Void. After all of his forces were erradicated, Morgoth stood alone. Which is somewhat similar to what we are told about the Battle of Battles, when it’s prophesized the black sword of Túrin (Gurthang) will destroy Morgoth.

Tolkien having Sauron repenting and stressing “the good in which he began” over and over again is significant. Is this only to show “in my story I do not deal in Absolute Evil. I do not think there is such a thing, since that is Zero. I do not think that at any rate any 'rational being’ is wholly evil” (Tolkien Letter 183)?

Sauron’s plan is oddily aligned with “Arda Healed”, the new and perfected world that shall be sung into existence after Morgoth is defeated, the Second Music of the Ainur and Men. And this is why “Rings of Power” having Sauron saying “I see the end, Celebrimbor. So clearly. I have seen it from the moment I awoke” is significant.

From “Morgoth’s Ring”:

“Eru is Lord of All, and will use as instruments of his final purposes, which are good, whatsoever any of his creatures, great or small, do or devise, in his despite or in his service. But we must hold that it is his will that those of the Eldar who serve him should not be cast down by griefs or evils that they encounter in Arda Marred; but should ascend to a strength and wisdom that they would not otherwise have achieved: that the Children of Eru should grow to be daughters and sons. 'For Arda Unmarred hath two aspects or senses. The first is the Unmarred that they discern in the Marred, if their eyes are not dimmed, and yearn for, as we yearn for the Will of Eru: this is the ground upon which Hope is built. The second is the Unmarred that shall be: that is, to speak according to Time in which they have their being, the Arda Healed, which shall be greater and more fair than the first, because of the Marring: this is the Hope that sustaineth. It cometh not only from the yearning for the Will of lluvatar the Begetter (which by itself may lead those within Time to no more than regret), but also from trust in Eru the Lord everlasting, that he is good, and that his works shall all end in good. This the Marrer hath denied, and in this denial is the root of evil, and its end is in despair.”

From the lore, we know Sauron supposedly hates Elves and has a special interest for the race of Men: “Sauron, the lieutenant of the Prime Dark Lord, who had fallen back into evil and was claiming both kingship and godship over Men of Middle-earth.” (Tolkien Letter 156)

“Arda Healed” will be for Men, and the Dominion of Men is one of Eru Ilúvatar’s plans. Hence the “fading of the Elves”. Which is probably why “Rings of Power” had Sauron talking about “Rings for Men” with Celebrimbor right away in 2x02:

"I did not come here to toast the Elven Rings. But to plead with you to make Rings for Men [...] You saved the Elves. [...] Mordor's rise was but the beginning. At this very moment, all Middle-earth balances on the brink of the abyss. Soon, every realm will fall. Not just Elves, but Dwarves. And Men. The darkness is growing stronger. And the Rings of Power are our last hope of restoring the light. You and I have work to do."

We also known from “Morgoth’s Ring”, Sauron knows Eru Ilúvatar ("at his own measure") and he also knows more of the Music of the Ainur than Morgoth ever did.

But the similarities between Sauron’s plan and "Arda Healed" are not random because, at the beginning, he was a Maia of Aulë. And in “The Silmarillion” we are told: “Ilúvatar will hallow them [the Dwarves] and give them a place among the Children in the end. Then their part shall be to serve Aulë and to aid him in the remaking of Arda after the Last Battle.”

Aulë and his Children (and servants) are in charge of rebuilding Arda anew, "Arda Healed", after the Dagor Dagorath. And now, everything becomes clearer about Mairon’s dreams and aspirations of a “new and perfect world” and why he harmonized with Aulë during the Ainulindalë.

But why was Mairon fated to “fall”? Was it to become a sort of “horseman of the Apocalypse” and to act as a catalyst for the Dagor Dagorath?

Mairon joined the very thing he wanted to destroy, the responsible for “Marred Arda”. Which seems contradictory, at first. But it isn't: because the entire world has to be destroyed to be remade anew, after all. That's the prophecy. And that's why Mairon joins Morgoth, and supports his chaotic destruction. Until he doesn't, because he loves order above all, and Morgoth became a nihilist.

Everything is a "means to an end" to Mairon, but "the end" is not Morgoth, it's "Arda Healed" (what he saw at the beginning when he awoke). But he's merely a Maia (not a Vala like Morgoth), so he settles for "healing" Middle-earth.

"But out of the chaos, we will forge a new and perfect order. No longer will we be hunted as the demons who broke Middle-earth, but rather worshipped as the saviors who finally healed it. By bringing its peoples together, to rule them all as one!"

But what would be Mairon’s role in the Battle of Battles? Since many characters will have the opportunity to redeem themselves, will Mairon be given the same chance?

Now we have to think about Mairon’s corruption, and how his virtues were reversed, perverted, by Morgoth. He became “the great deceiver” because of this corruption, after all. He didn’t began as such. Unless, his fate is to ultimately deceive and betray Morgoth.

Some descriptions of the Dagor Dagorath are very similar to the Norse Ragnarök; mainly the final battle between the gods and the demons and giants, ending in the death of the gods and the world reborn. Tolkien, however, later added Men and Elves to his own version. Everyone comes together in a massive battle in Valinor.

In the Ragnarök, the battle ends with a final showdown between Loki and Heimdall, after everyone else is dead. And they mortally wound each other, ending the battle. Then, the world is remade.

The majority will associate Sauron with Loki, since they are both tricksters. However, Heimdall is the watchman of the Gods, the “all-seeing eye”. And while Loki is chaos, Heimdall is order. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is very similar to how Morgoth and Sauron are opposites. Also, Loki is known for stealing jewelry (golden necklace of Freyja), the same way Morgoth stole the Silmarils.

As for the Christian Apocalypse, it’s the “Book of Revelations”, when Satan is released from Hell and is defeated by Jesus Christ. Also similar to the Dagor Dagorath in the way Morgoth also breaks free from the Void to be defeated, and that’s where the similarities stop.

In the early drafts of the Dagor Dagorath, Tolkien did plan for a final showdown between Morgoth and other character (“Book of Lost Tales”):

“For 'tis said that ere the Great End come Melko shall in some wise contrive a quarrel between Moon and Sun, and Ilinsor shall seek to follow Urwendi through the Gates, and when they are gone the Gates of both East and West will be destroyed, and Urwendi and Ilinsor shall be lost. So shall it be that Fionwë Úrion, son of Manwë, of love for Urwendi, shall in the end be Melko's bane, and shall destroy the world to destroy his foe, and so shall all things the be rolled away.”

This was when Tolkien was still on board with the Valarindi, the children of the Valar, and that’s why we have a son of Manwë defeating Morgoth, because of the death of his love, Urwendi. "Fionwë Úrion" is Eönwë, and "Urwendi" is Arien (the Maia of the Sun).

Of course, this tale no longer applies because Tolkien removed this (expect the destruction of both the Sun and the Moon). Still, the idea of a one-on-one combat to defeat Morgoth will be present in other versions. From “The Shaping of Middle-earth”: “Fionwë will fight Morgoth on the plain of Valinor, and the spirit of Túrin shall be beside him; it shall be Túrin who with his black sword will slay Morgoth, and thus the children of Húrin shall be avenged.”

Either way, all the versions we have speak of a man defeating Morgoth wielding the black sword of Túrin (Gurthang reforged from Anglachel; forged by Eöl the Dark Elf), after he fights Tulkas and Eönwë. In some versions, it’s Turin himself, while in others Turin is in charge of slaying dragons. So we don't have a definitive version of Turin's part in the Dagor Dagorath, except that he'll be present and he'll fight against Morgoth's forces to redeem the children of Húrin.

We have nothing on Mairon’s part.

But if we go by the “The Book of Lost Tales”, it’s Morgoth’s creatures that will stand at his side; not merely Dragons, but Balrogs, wargs, Orcs, and all sorts of dark creatures and monsters Morgoth bred during the First age.

Werewolves were Sauron’s creations, though.

But Mairon himself wasn’t created by Morgoth, and Tolkien tells us, he has no true loyalty towards Morgoth during the Second and Third ages, seeing him as a failure and using his methods as the “means to an end”. And “the end” is what comes after the Dagor Dagorath, as we’ve seen. So, Mairon has no interest in joining Morgoth’s forces (at least, not truthfully) nor in having him hypothetically succeed.

From the information we have, the most logical conclusion would be Mairon will stand against Morgoth in the Dagor Dagorath. This way he will also fulfill his “task” of helping Aulë rebuilding Arda anew, "Arda Healed", and will probably earn his redemption. Him surviving the battle and taking a part in the Music of the Ainur and Men is another matter entirely.

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